(VOVworld) – The UN Arms Trade Treay (UNATT) officially took effect Wednesday following ratification by 60 countries. 

A UN peacekeeper in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) examines AK-47 magazines stored in a warehouse in Beni after they have been collected in the demobilization process in Matembo, North Kivu. (Photo: UN)

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the imminent entry into force of the treaty in his message to the 193 UN members on Tuesday, calling on those who haven’t yet joined the treaty to do it soon.
“The treaty marks the opening of a new chapter in our collective efforts to bring responsibility, accountability, and transparency to the global arms trade,” said Ban who expressed his hope that treaty signatories will “feel a legal obligation to apply the highest common standards to international transfers of weapons and ammunition.”
Zeid Raad al-Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the treaty is a tool for countries to prevent the violence and insecurity resulting from the arms flow and in so doing to fulfil their human rights obligations.